Little white tern
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Charadriiformes
Family: Laridae
Genus: Gygis
Species:
G. microrhyncha
Binomial name
Gygis microrhyncha
Saunders, 1876

The little white tern (Gygis microrhyncha) is a small seabird found in French Polynesia and the Republic of Kiribati.[1] This species was previously considered a subspecies of the white tern (Gygis alba microrhyncha), but is now recognised as a separate species.[2]

Taxonomy

The little white tern was first formally described by the British ornithologist Howard Saunders in 1876 under the binomial name Gygis microrhyncha[3] meaning small (micro) bill (rhyncha). There are no recognized subspecies. Some authors have postulated that there may be three species of Gygis: Gygis alba, in the Atlantic Ocean, and Gygis candida and Gygis microrhyncha, both in the Pacific.[4]

Description

The little white tern is much smaller and has a more slender bill than any subspecies of the common white tern.[5] It has been described as a "compact, goggle-eyed bird with shorter, more rounded wings and less deeply forked tail" when compared to Gygis alba.[4] The calamus or 'quill' of the feather in the little white tern are notably white compared to black calamus found in common white terns.[6]

Distribution and habitat

The little white tern ranges throughout French Polynesia and the Republic of Kiribati, including the Phoenix and Line Islands,[7] and was first described from three specimens from the Marquesas Islands.

References

  1. 1 2 BirdLife International (2018). "Gygis microrhyncha". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2018: e.T22694830A132576654. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-2.RLTS.T22694830A132576654.en. Retrieved 15 September 2023.
  2. ↑ del Hoyo, J; Collar, N.J.; Christie, D.A.; Elliott, A.; Fishpool, L.D.C. (2014). HBW and BirdLife International Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World. Volume 1: Non-passerines. Barcelona, Spain and Cambridge, UK.: Lynx Edicions BirdLife International.
  3. ↑ Saunders, Howard (1876). "On the Sterninæ, or Terns, with Descriptions of Three New Species". Proceedings of the Zoological Society. 44: 638–672. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.1876.tb02598.x.
  4. 1 2 Pratt, H. Douglas (2020). "Species limits and English names in the genus Gygis (Laridae)". Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club. 140 (2): 195–208. doi:10.25226/bboc.v140i2.2020.a10. ISSN 0007-1595.
  5. ↑ Olson, Storrs L (2005). "First occurrence of Gygis microrhyncha in the Hawaiian Islands". Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club. 125: 155–157.
  6. ↑ Tristram, H.B. (1881). "Notes on a Collection of Birds from the Marquesas Islands". Ibis. 23 (2): 249–253. doi:10.1111/j.1474-919X.1881.tb06022.x.
  7. ↑ "Gygis microrhyncha (Little White Tern) - Avibase". avibase.bsc-eoc.org. Retrieved 2021-05-04.
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